EXCLUSIVE

A MULTI- MILLION pound fleet of ecofriendly council cars, bought with taxpayers’ cash, are lying barely used.

The majority of electric vehicles snapped- up by council chiefs as part of a plan to help the environment fail to clock 10 miles a day – with some averaging little over two.

That’s despite local authorities splurging at least £ 2.8 million on 140 of the emission-free cars.

Eben Wilson, of Taxpayer Scotland, branded the cash layout pointless. He said: “Spending hardworking families’ taxes deserved honesty and transparency.

“These numbers show that contribution of these cars to productivity is minuscule – in essence most of the spending has been unnecessary and largely wasted.”

The Scottish G over nment – throughTransport Scotland – urged councils to invest in the vehicles by offering generous grants. They hoped to help reduce the country’s carbon footprint.

Those included the Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Support Scheme, launched by First Minister Alex Salmond in 2010.

That initiative made £3.6 million available to councils to buy or lease eco-friendly cars.

But we discovered that many of the 140 vehicles picked up by councils under the schemes spend most of their time gathering dust.

South Ayrshire Council bought four Peugeot iONs for £ 87,000 in 2012. Our probe found that those cars travel an average of just 27 miles a week, with one car driving a mere 1,590 miles in two years – roughly two miles a day.

In South Lanarkshire, 16 iONs were bought for use by council staff for £322,000 in 2011 and 2013.

Several of those tally between just four and five miles a day.

And in Perth and Kinross – where council funds and Transport Scotland grants procured four Nissan leafs for a total £ 106,000 in March 2012 – the cars average fewer than seven miles each day.

Tory transport spokesman Alex Johnstone said: “Research into new transport technology must be encouraged. But politically correct pursuits of electric cars, when there is no substantial evidence that suggests they will provide a long- term solution is a waste of resources.